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UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEroE.

WILLIAM E. STEIN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

DRESS-LIFTER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 27,578, dated March 20, 1860.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM E. STEIN, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Contrivance for Lifting and Holding Up Ladies Dresses; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l, represents the contrivance spread out to show its details and Fig. 2, represents it in wear.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

To enable others to make my invention I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, is a waist band intended to fasten at the back by means of a hook and eye or other fastening and a, a, Z), b, are four flexible tubes attached to the front of said band and so held in place, by means of a piece of cloth or other fabric B, connecting them with each other and with the band that when the band is on the waist and fastened behind, the two shorter tubes a, a, will hang in front of the hips and the two longer ones will pass over and behind the hips as shown in Fig. 2. Each of these tubes receives one of four running cords c, c, (Z, fZ, which passes right through it, the two cords c, c, which pass through the tubes a, a, being connected together at their upper extremities by a button c, or its equivalent, and the two cords cZ, Z, which pass through Z), Z), being connected together by a button y or its equivalent. 'Io the lower extremities of these cords there are attached pieces of tape or other fabric g, g, witheyelets in them to receive hooks attached to the interior of the skirt of the dress at about equal distances apart or the said cords may be provided with any other contrivances for attaching them to the dress at different points or may be even secured to the dress by pinning them, so that by drawing out the buttons e, f, through an opening in the front of the dress, the wearer can draw up the cords through their respective guide tubes a, a., and ZJ, Za, and the skirt may be lifted at four points; or by drawing one button either the front or back part only may be lifted as the case may be. Small weights made of lead or other sufficiently heavy material, are attached to the lower parts of the said cords to draw them back through their guide tubes and pull down the skirt to its proper place when the buttons f, e, are liberated. The cords may be prevented slipping out by making a, a, of one piece and Z), b, of one piece, but if this is not done the buttons f, g, will serve as stops.

To prevent the skirt being lifted higher than is desired each of the cords may have attached to it at a suitable point a button ZL, or other stop, which will stop the drawing up of the cords by coming in Contact with the bottoms of the tubes. In the example of my invention represented in the drawing, only the two back cords (Z, (Z, are furnished with stops ZL, Zt, as these will be sufficient, for the buttons j, g, will generally both be drawn up together with one hand and when one is stopped all will stop.

The guide tubes a, a, b, Z), constitute an important feature of my invention, as they serve to keep the cords in a proper operative form and protect them from being interfered with by the upper part of the under-skirt and from raising the underskirt along with the outer one. It is necessary that these tubes shall be flexible enough to adapt themselves to the contour of the person or dress and yet stiff enough to prevent them being collapsed upon the cords by the pressure of the dress and to prevent them yielding longitudinally to the pull of the cords when the stops ZL, ZL, come in contact with them to stop the further lifting of the dress. In order that they shall possess these requisites I construct them of coiled wire, as shown in Fig. l, by breaking away the part of the cloth B, which covers one of the tubes b. In the same place the tube itself is partly broken away to expose the cord CZ, within it.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, as a new article of manufacture, is-

A dress lifter'composed of a waist band A, fabric B, guide tubes a, Z), cords c, CZ, tapes g, and weights z', arranged and constructed as herein set forth and described.

IVM. E. STEIN.

Witnesses:

WM. TUTCH, R. S. SPENCER. 

